Behavioural Insights Projects
Discover projects applying behavioural science to policy from around the world. Add your own projects, whether completed or still ongoing, to contribute knowledge on BI applications across different countries, policy areas, and topics of interest.

Number of BI projects:
0
Legend: Projects status
- Pre-registered project
- Completed project
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Challenge
At West Kentucky Community & Technical College (WKCTC), many students were failing or withdrawing from courses, but few used the free tutoring services available on campus. Additionally, faculty had the potential to play a large role in helping facilitate student engagement in tutoring services through referrals, but they weren’t involved enough to have an impact.
Design
To better connect students to campus tutoring services, a series of nine behaviorally designed emails were sent to…
BI Project
Empirical testing of the impact on consumer choice resulting from differences in the composition of…
Differences in the composition of seemingly identical branded food products (DC-SIP) has been a source of growing concern in the EU in recent years. This was particularly the case after tests conducted in several Member States (MS) confirmed the presence of differences in composition of some branded food products sold across different Member States. This report aims to contribute to the existing studies by verifying whether the presence of DC-SIP influences consumer preferences and willingness…
BI Project
Effective position of call-to-action: Is the response rate higher if the call-to-action appears the…
How can response rates to questionnaires be increased? In the first quarter of 2023, some of the participants in a CBS survey received a letter in which the call-to-action appeared as far as possible at the top of the letter. The other participants received standard letters. The analyses showed that the standard letters produced a significantly higher response rate than the letters in which the call-to-action was placed at the top.
Why this experiment was conducted: high response rate is…
The objective of the practice is to apply the behavioural lens (behavioural governance) on the Good Relations pilot-project.
During the spring 2023 Finnish Centre for Economic Development, Transport and Environment will be hosting about 20 decision maker events as a part of their Good Relations –project. These events are organized to bring together local decision makers (city councils and public officials) and different population and language groups to discuss good relations among local…
Behavioural science interventions advancing energy efficiency have mostly focused on consumer behaviour, with comparatively little work examining the important role that industrial consumers play in advancing the energy transition. Using the D.R.I.V.E.® framework, the project identified, analysed and consolidated the relevant literature and potential of behavioural science informed approaches to help SMEs become more energy efficient. Starting from a comprehensive review of the academic and…
PROJECT SUMMARY
ideas42 and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics worked with a major bank and telecommunications company in Nigeria to send behaviorally-informed SMS messages to customers to increase their use of mobile bank accounts.
IMPACT
Effects varied by message and audience; notably, injunctive norm messages led to a 45 percent increase in the number of clients making deposits among females with active accounts, from 0.82% to 1.81%.
RESULTS
Design
ideas42 and the Busara Center for…
BI Project
More Than Public Service: A Field Experiment on Job Advertisements and Diversity in the Police
There is a human capital crisis looming in the public sector as fewer and fewer people show interest in government jobs. At the same time, many public sector organizations struggle with increasing the diversity of their workforce. Although many institutional forces contribute to the challenge, part of the solution is in how government recruits. This study presents the results of a field experiment aimed at attracting more and different people to apply to a police force by varying job…
BI Project
Behavioural prompts to increase early filing of tax returns: a population-level randomised…
In Indonesia, as in other countries, a large proportion of tax returns are filed at the last minute. In a population-wide randomised controlled trial (n = 11,157,069), we evaluated the impact of behavioural email prompts on the proportion of annual tax returns filed at least two weeks before the deadline; and overall filing rate. In two control conditions, taxpayers either received no email or an email used in prior years, emphasising regulatory information. The five treatments informed by…
Climate change is undoubtedly a challenge with deep - and increasingly complex - behavioural roots. High profile efforts are already underway in Canada through federal levers, like the carbon tax, energy efficiency regulations, and investments in clean technology, that further the Government of Canada's goals for decarbonization, electrification, energy-efficiency, and nature-based solutions. An additional tool to contribute to these efforts is evidenced-based, data-driven behavioural science…
SIMPLESMENTE is an acronym formed by the initials of 12 mechanisms studied by the behavioral sciences. SIMPLESMENTE is an application to simplify and support the use of behavioral sciences in public policy designs. Based on a guided script, users define a problem of interest in public policies and are encouraged to assume the user's perspective. They are invited to apply a series of references, based on evidence and international practice, to improve their understanding of the situation and…